973. Love pats from Bethany, which are more like love "slaps." But they're so cute.

972. Tonight I was snuggling Jonathan at bed time. He reached over me and put his hand on my arm. Then he just gently rubbed my arm.

971. Hearing him say "thank you, mom."

970. A night out with the whole family at a hotel.

969. Swimming in the hotel pool.

968. Who am I kidding? It was fun that we all got to be in the pool area together, but the water was too cold for any sane person to want to swim in. However, since Jonathan and Lainee do not qualify as sane people, someone had to get in the water with them. Paul took it upon himself to be that person. God bless that man.

967. The kids' first movie at a theater (which, by the way, Jonathan can't say.) They had fun.

966. I had to leave the theater with Bethany. But she had me laughing out loud (literally) as I watched her scoot across the floor of the lobby. She can go so fast! And watching her from behind is just hilarious.

965. One heck of a good continental breakfast.

964. How we got up in time to do this, I don't know, but we managed to get up, have breakfast, go swimming again (just Paul and Lainee) and get to the zoo before 11:00. That left us the two hours we'd hoped for before we wanted to leave with kids who'd be ready for their naps.

963. Free parking.

962. The museum membership that Paul bought got us into the zoo for 1/2 price.

961. The free "treat tents" all over the zoo today.

960. Bethany was so incredibly good at the zoo. So, so good.

959. The train ride.

958. Oh, I forgot to mention eating at Max and Erma's last night. The laredo steak is my favorite.

957. And, because the waitress didn't bring our drinks until we were done with our salads, she felt so bad (or was just trying to redeem her chance at a good tip) that she didn't charge us for the cookies or coffee we ordered.

956. And she gave us a coupon for a free order of cookies next time we come in.

955. And Bethany, who was a little feverish from some immunizations the day before, wasn't in such a great mood. But, she settled down after I walked her a bit, then proceded to happily eat all of the food she'd rejected ten minutes earlier... and then some.

954. So, back to the zoo... we decided to eat lunch about ten minutes before the line got HUGE!

953. And we saw the elephants, which Lainee had been asking for all day, just before we left. Jonathan was not even interested in looking until Lainee said, "is that poop?" Either Paul or I answered that it was, indeed elephant poop, at which point Jonathan immediately perked up and asked if I'd hold him up to see over the fence.

952. There were some severe storms here while we were gone (and we weren't but 20 miles from home, so we experienced them) but we were fine. When we got home we saw that our power had gone out... but of course, we didn't have to deal with it because we were at the hotel.

951. My family.